Chandrayaan 3 ISRO says lander instrument starts serving as location marker on moon

Vikram lander of Chandryaan-3 mission has given India an opportunity to be proud again. ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 mission landed on the Moon last year. Vikram Lander and Pragyan Rover completed their experiments on the moon for about 15 days. However, once Vikram and Pragyan went into sleep mode, they could not work again. Now the Indian Space Agency has said that an instrument of Chandrayaan-3 lander has started working as a location marker near the south pole of the Moon.

In a statement, ISRO said that the Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) mounted on the Chandrayaan-3 lander has started functioning, PTI reported. ISRO said that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of the American space agency NASA achieved the measurement of laser range by successfully detecting reflected signals on 12 December 2023.

ISRO said that Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) was used on LRO. When this observation took place, it was night on the Moon and LRO was moving to the east of Chandrayaan-3.

NASA’s LRA was adjusted on Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander as part of an international collaboration. ISRO also said that Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander, which landed near the south pole of the Moon on August 23, 2023, has been in contact with ‘Lola’ since then.

ISRO has said that ‘Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander will continue to function as a location marker on the lunar surface. This will help current and future Moon missions. Serving as a location marker for Vikram Lander will help in accurately determining the orbital position of the spacecraft. Besides, irregularities related to the structure and gravity of the Moon can also be detected.